It was apparent from minutes into the game with AZ that Le Boss had told his stars to keep the tempo down, to take it easy and to avoid any rash decisions or challenges that could lead to injury.
The premiership title has been blown wide open and you can truly sense a shift in power in England at the moment. Paul Merson said before kick-off that in his opinion, ‘Arsenal look like the best team in the country and are not a mile behind Barcelona!’.
While some of my amoeba minded friends sat and scoffed at such a comment and touted Chelsea and United as the same-old same-old favourites, I sat pondering our former player’s words.
Yes, both we and Chelsea have two losses under our belts. However, our first (Manchester United) was a dubious one at that having bossed the game for 90% of its duration and then a rather unscrupulous penalty from Wayne ‘Tom Daley’ Rooney followed by an own goal led to our grossly unfair defeat.
The second yet another trip to Manchester which I’m not going to delve into, suffice to say I will be getting my ticket in April for their return to the Emirates although I’m sure the man I’m really going to see will have a cold, flu, poorly leg, smallpox etc
Chelsea came at Wigan (4-0 Arsenal) and then Villa Park, both they deserved to lose.
But Mr. Merson is right, before last night we had won seven games in a row scoring twenty one goals, amazing!
It was incredible to listen to Merson saying our spine of Gallas, Vermaelen, Song, and Fabregas was actually our strong point, having been exposed as painfully lacking by Man United in the semis of this very competition last year at the Emirates.
We also have several players ready to slot into that area, Ramsey, Denilson and dare I say, Abou Diaby?
We then have our little attacking stars (Fabregas of course is not simply a defensive spinal player) such as our skipper, Arshavin of course, Van Persie, Walcott, Nasri, Rosicky, Eduardo etc.
Arsenal cruised last night however, with Vermaelen and Song my favourite players clearly showing what style of game Wenger was playing.
While one nil would have been superb, one-one away in Holland to the Dutch Champions courtesy of a 93rd minute goal is hardly the end of all things!
It could be a lot worse, I mean, you could be beaten at home, couldn’t you Liverpool? Barcelona? (Is it wrong I actually got physical pleasure from seeing Barsenal lose to Rubin at the Nou Camp?’)
Arsenal have easily qualified in this group, so easy in fact was it that I wasn’t even paying attention the Liege score, and in truth still don’t know it now!
It was a solid, if a little dull performance at times tonight and I would have been singing their praises had we not got pegged back last night, but still, in third gear we looked as if we were humouring a very, very good team last night.
As I say there were a couple of stand-out performances Thomas Vermaelen and Alex Song I thought were the two best by far but Arshavin had a good game (hideous back pass from inside opposition territory giving a corner aside!). RVP had a solid game as did Fabregas (not fantastic, but then, we can’t expect what he’s been treating us to every week now, can we?’
My player scores:
- Mannone – 6. To be honest, didn’t have a lot to do, didn’t think he could do a whole lot about the goal. Perhaps he could have come to the ball but perhaps that’s super critical. Nice to have some competition in this area.
- Sagna – 6. Fair, not great. Some good runs, hooked up with the advance players well.
- Gallas – 7. Played well, was solid enough, really looks as if he enjoys playing with the Verminator.
- Vermaelen – 8. Really good game from the CB last night. Absolute bulldog at the back. Put his heads to a ball an AZ player was volleying and won the challenge!
- Clichy – 6. Hasn’t come to life in my opinion this year yet. Really hasn’t clicked, defensively or in an attacking manner, his speed means he can make up for his mistakes that are creeping in far too often.
- Song – 8. Solid again, cleared up and started off moves, really brilliant.
- Diaby – 6. Meh. Some good stuff, some good runs but agree with the commentator, ‘I haven’t really heard Diaby’s name.’ Almost scored an own goal as well, but not really his bad, was it RVP?
- Eboue – 7. Good energy, good willpower, tried and tried and tried. Not a starter in my mind but a good squad player.
- Fabregas -7. Good, some sloppiness but I do really believe Wenger told his boys to take it easy tonight ahead of a weekend trip to West Ham.
- Arshavin – 7. Some moments of brilliance, and one bizarre one! Always looks confident and relished playing as a CF for the last minutes getting two or three shots on target in moments up top. Hint, hint Mr. Wenger.
- Van Persie – 7. Good, good. Some really lovely touches and really should have scored in the first half.
As the scores show, the team were on cruise control last night yet still never looked in any trouble or discomfort. Let’s not jinx it guys, but its looking very, very good at the moment.
Frightened Mr. Ferguson, Mr. Ancelotti? Not nearly frightened enough, you have no idea what’s ‘gunning’ for you!
Article written by Super Cesc
12 Comments
October 21, 2009 at 3:19 pm
what need to happen 4 us 2 get a pen? the fifa didnt punish eduardo but they punished the hole team.
October 21, 2009 at 3:43 pm
not a starter in your mind; eboue but how about you change his position on the field in your mind and stick out your neck and say he is sometimes better than sagna at rb. thats how i see it in my mind. what is in your mind now?
October 21, 2009 at 4:11 pm
Ah, Tony, that’s a touch aggressive wouldn’t you think, do you know Eboue or something?
I was appaulled last year when the home fans booed Eboue and i think he’s done brilliantly to bounce back from that and is most certainly proving competition for Sagna.
But is he better than Sagna….i don’t believe so, but hey, you’re entitled to your opinion, that’s mine.
He is (as we’re seeing with the GK situation at the moment) providing competition which has been sorely missed in our squad with first teamm places too sure and too comfortable for the ’stars’.
But Tony, please don’t bite my head off when i mae a personal judgement based on my own assumptions. I like Eboue, there’s a certain cheekiness about him when he plays.
He can have moments of sheer stupidity at times though, where he dives, fouls, plays balls to nowhere and goes on ridculous runs that will never have end product.
So, if you wanted my reasons, there you are. But i totally agree it’s great that players like Sagna are being threatened, i think we’ll see Almunia come out stronger due to Don Vito’s vibrant performances.
October 21, 2009 at 6:28 pm
On the Sagna/Eboue topic, I think that you can avoid outright comparisons because they play differently. Sagna, pure RB, defensively pretty solid, gets forward, crosses, end of story. Eboue, faster (i think), more attack minded, gets forward, cuts in, shoots. Both are quality. Personally I like sagna to start in the league because i feel he is more of a physical presence. He has been a rock wall in many games. Eboue, injuries permitting, works well in Champions league games as a RB where ball skills and speed count more. It would be interesting to see if in the future Wenger starts to train Sagna for a midfield role, like he has Eboue. I like them both
October 21, 2009 at 9:08 pm
Scott we have had some disagreements on your analysis of games, but I think you are totally on the money on this one.
I felt from the start of the game that Arsene told the boys to play safe and don’t get hurt. It seems the only player running out there at full steam was Eboue.
Do you think Eboue can cut out the one a match dive? This is one of his weakness along with not putting the ball on target when he shoots.
I think Vermehlan was at fault for the goal, he fell asleep.
October 21, 2009 at 9:17 pm
On a different subject, I have always feared the break in play by the international fixtures. Because Arsenal is a Rhythm team (passing and moving) the break in play affects them more than any other team in the Premier league. We have not played well after the breaks as you will note last Saturday. I don’t feel Arsenal could lose or draw another game until after the break when we play Sunderland. We are a much better team than Sunderland but the break will do us no justice.
Scott, I like your blog, never meant to insult you, I just wanted you to be fair and put your dislike for Diaby in your back pocket. This kid has talent and we need to be patient and let that come out, he is still learning the game.
October 21, 2009 at 10:06 pm
Otariq,
Healthy disagreement is aprt of being human and shows a good healthy support for a team.
It was actually my last article that you said i didn’t apprecitae Diaby, and to be honest, he’s ‘growing’ on me.
I can see what Wenger is doing but i still think we need another player (de Rossi etc) to sit next to Song.
Diaby however, adds quality to our squad no doubt and makes our bench look strong with Eboue, Walcott, Nasri, Eduardo etc.
October 21, 2009 at 10:14 pm
I do agree with you that we need another defensive Mid-fielder.
October 21, 2009 at 10:21 pm
I also saw today that Wenger is looking at Van Der Weil i believe from Ajax. Looks as if he is replacing an out of sorts Clichy.
However, papers also say Wenger will be going after Cana again which does seem a little far fetched.
October 22, 2009 at 4:07 am
I think we didnt deserve to win the game, exactly because we didnt try our hardest our not even close to it, as well as in the birmingham game we fell asleep in the defence and conceded we have to concentrate for the whole 93 minutes !! And I’m really bitter at arshavin who could have passed the ball to a teammate so many times when we were getting in the box, he wanted badly to score and was greedy if he had passed the ball we most likely wouldn’t have drawn the fucking match !
October 22, 2009 at 7:53 am
Diaby, Diaby… He’s been here almost 4 years and we’re still talking of him ‘improving’? For a player with size and skill, he doesn’t seem to know he could be world class!
October 22, 2009 at 9:48 am
Hello chaps, this article was written by Super Cesc, not me. Don’t want to steal the credit for his articles.